the iPhone craze and when Android technology was still picking up steam — but
that it has always paid off. The timing was
great for the launch of many of its mobile
apps, and the company has seen a very
positive response from consumers, according to Ranford.

“In our holistic program of online
engagement, it really has given us a broad
mobile strategy,” he says.

1800Flowers.com’s involvement inE-commerce and M-commerce has es-pecially spoken most successfully to theon-the-go gifter, Ranford says. “We feelstrongly about takingadvantage of thatmassive evolution offolks moving toM-commerce. We’revery focused on SMSright now and ongrowing our subscriberbase. We can send re-minders to consumersfor major holidays, forexample, and we like

to promote our mobile

Web offerings via other
Web channels, as well,” Ranford says,
citing E-mail directives driving traffic to
the mobile Web site where customers can
shop and make purchases.

By keeping all of its mobile and social
media marketing opt-in only, 1800Flow-
ers.com has been able to form an enthusiastic online community, according to
Amit Shah, director of online marketing,
mobile and social media.

get those offers on their mobile phones.
Being able to offer products on-the-go
is something they’ve never had before,”
Shah says.

In addition to its own Web site,1800Flowers.com also maintains a heavypresence on social media sites such asTwitter and Facebook, allowing shoppersto post products to their own pages andmarketers to gauge which products aremost popular with online users. Consum-ers can also take part in contests such asthe Summer of Smiles campaign, whereusers win a free bouquet for correctlyidentifying photos of celebrity smiles;shop directly through 1800Flowers.com’sFacebook page, which has more than